“Oh my God, you’re hopeless!” Holly was laughing, tilting backward in a lawn chair, popping M&Ms in her mouth.
Elda was on the floor, fiddling with one of those gingerbread kits they’d used to practice for the second round. She was trying to make the walls stand, but they kept toppling over as she tried to add more icing.
Danny raised his hand to knock. He held his breath. This was it. This was the moment of truth.
“I mean, look at you.” Holly laughed louder, covering her mouth to stifle it. “I can’t believe Danny actually bought that you were the one who knew how to build a gingerbread house.”
“Shhh,” Elda said. “Shut up.”
And now his breath was stuck in his throat. His hand had stopped about an inch from the door. For once, Danny was glad to be on the crutches, because at least they were keeping him upright.
“Besides, I’m not that bad.” Elda leaned back, admiring her handiwork.
“You’re terrible,” Holly said. “You suck.”
“Well, you’re a terrible matchmaker.” Elda’s voice lowered to a whisper. “Texting him all that stuff about architecture and weird books? No wonder we never had anything to say to each other.”
Danny’s heart skipped a beat, and the past week or so started replaying in his mind, but with a new clarity. Holly rocking the second round of the competition, telling him she was a sculptor, an artist. Elda having absolutely nothing to say to him whenever they were together, but Holly being able to see into his soul.
The girls had been playing a prank on him. He’d been talking to Holly this whole time.
And he was a dumbass not to have seen it.
They were literally laughing at him right now.
He rapped on the door. It was an involuntary action. He wasn’t sure if he was making his presence known or trying to get them to stop saying these things.
Both girls’ heads swung toward the door. The dim lighting in the garage cast dark shadows on their faces. Danny pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped inside.
Holly jumped up from her chair. “Danny.” He got the sense she was about to rush toward him but caught herself when she saw the look on his face. “Oh.”
He swallowed, trying to quell the emotion rising in his throat. “So, I heard what you were talking about just now.” He gripped the handles on his crutches so hard, his fingernails dug into his palms. “You two were messing with me this entire time?”
“No.” Now Holly moved toward him. Danny tried to step backward and almost fell. She stopped in her tracks. “We were not messing with you.”
“Honestly,” Elda said.
“Oh? Honestly?” They were acting like all of this was totally normal, like playing a guy for a fool was no big deal, like Danny should be totally cool with this very normal news.
“We never meant to hurt you,” Holly said. Her eyes were black in the dark garage. She’d folded her hands in front of her chest like some fourth grader who’d gotten caught cheating, like she was begging for forgiveness.
“You never meant to hurt me? Well, everything’s fine then. All is forgiven.” Danny wasn’t normally so sarcastic, but the tone seemed to fit the situation. He’d come here armed for rejection, but he should’ve come prepared for humiliation instead.
“I’m so sorry,” Holly said. She was near tears. Good.
“I can’t believe you did this, knowing everything that’s happened to me over the past month. All the time you were pulling this crap—pretending to be your cousin on the phone, trying to get me to like Elda, because…?”
“Because I like you, Danny.” Now Holly was crying. Her lip trembled, and her breath was shaky.
“No, you don’t. You don’t knowingly deceive someone you care about.” A few hours ago, hearing Holly say those words would’ve sent him to the moon, but now he only felt like a rube.
Holly closed her eyes, and the tears kept rolling down her cheeks. Elda ran over and wrapped an arm around her cousin. “This is so hard for me to say,” Holly said.
“Maybe text it to me.”
Holly opened her eyes. They were still in shadow, but their emotion cut through the darkness. “I only did this because I was too scared to tell you how I felt. Someone like you was never going to want someone like me.”
“What does that even mean, ‘someone like you?’” He wanted to fold his arms in defiance, but he had to settle for gripping his crutches harder.
“You’re popular and outgoing, completely out of my league.”
“Well, that’s ridiculous,” Danny said. Since the day they met, Danny had been thinking Holly was out of his league.
“Also”—Elda let go of Holly and stepped forward—“I told Holly I liked you, and she was just trying to help me not say things about dead squirrels.”
Holly gestured to her cousin. “You and Elda made more sense. Believe me, I’ve been rejected enough times to know that. I knew I couldn’t stand it if you looked at me like other guys do. It’d crush me. I’ve liked you since we were eight.”
So much wasted time. If she’d just told him at the holiday gala or put her own damn number in his phone, all of this could’ve been avoided. He would’ve leaped at the chance to be with Holly. But instead of being honest about her feelings, she’d tried to pawn him off on her cousin.
“You know what, Holly? Maybe the reason people reject you is because you pull garbage like this instead of being honest.” His brain was a jumble of confusion. Part of him was ready to forgive Holly on the spot, but a bigger piece was hell bent on making her feel as shitty as he felt right now.
“Danny,” Elda said, “that’s a low blow.”
“No, Elda,” Holly said, “he’s right. I know it’ll never be enough, but I’m so sorry. I got in too deep. I was just going to help Elda strike up a rapport with you, but I took it too far. It was like, I’d always wanted to talk to you, and I got carried away when I had the chance. I didn’t want to stop. I mean, we’d chat for hours.”
He raised a hand to stop her. He couldn’t hear any more, not right now. Those chats had been the best thing that had happened to him in the past month. He lived for feeling his phone buzz in his pocket, knowing it could be her on the other end. “But it was all a lie. Everything between us was one big lie.” He turned toward the door. “Good luck with your showstopper tomorrow. You’re gonna need it.”
…
Holly ran up to the attic after Danny left, and Elda followed her. Their entire family was watching a movie in the living room, and all of them turned to watch Holly storm up the stairs.
“Are you okay?” Elda asked after Holly had flopped facedown on the pull out couch the two of them had been sharing. Elda sat gingerly next to Holly’s legs.
Holly, still on her stomach, turned her head toward the wall. She let her eyes unfocus, and the plaid pattern on the pillow in front of her took on a 3-D quality. She’d just been rejected by Danny Garland, but not in the way she’d anticipated.
“I blew it,” Holly said. “I completely blew it.”